SC asks HC to decide Pintos' bail plea in 10 days

New Delhi/Gurugram, Nov 7 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Punjab and Haryana High Court to decide in 10 days the anticipatory bail plea of three Ryan group trustees in a case relating to the murder of a seven-year-old boy in the group’s Gurgaon-based school, as per the boy’s father and lawyer.

Taking a serious view of the “long interim anticipatory bail” granted by the high court to the trustees — Francis Augustine Pinto, Grace Pinto and Ryan Pinto, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra passed the direction on a plea moved by murdered Class II boy’s father Barun Chandra Thakur.

Pointing to the interim anticipatory bail granted up to December 5, Thakur’s counsel Sushil K. Tekriwal said the present case was a classic example of how the high and mighty used legal provisions to their advantage.

Tekriwal argued that Ryan trustees were running from the Bombay High Court to Punjab and Haryana High Court without any legal tenability and that the high court had “wrongly granted” the interim relief to the Pinto family.

The counsel was also critical of the high court’s order granting interim protection to Ryan group CEO Ryan Pinto and his parents, Augustine Pinto and Grace Pinto, in the case.

Upholding the points of objection raise by Tekriwal, the bench that also comprised Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, said: “We request the high court to decide the plea within 10 days from hence.”

On September 8 this year, seven-year-old Pradhuman was found murdered on the premises of Ryan School at Bhondsi near Gurugram.

The owners of the Ryan School have filed the anticipatory bail petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which granted interim bail to them till December 5, which was challenged by Thakur in the Supreme Court.